Instagram has long been a prominent participant in the world of social media marketing channels.
And this is especially true for eCommerce firms with access to a visually-oriented platform with a large following and a high level of engagement.
In the last few years, Instagram has developed and progressed the same as Facebook, with added new features and meeting the requirements of the business people and users alike.
In this guide, we shall go through all the basics of marketing on Instagram.
Use Of Instagram For marketing
Instagram is a critical component of the marketing strategies of many small businesses.
And with justification.
It boasts a vast and varied audience of over one billion monthly active users and 500 million daily users on Instagram Stories, all of whom are willing to connect with businesses, resulting in excellent engagement levels.
According to a research and case study, they can convert directly from sales to leads.
- Instagram, used by over 11% of social media users across the US to shop.
- Every month, 130 million users click on shopping posts on Instagram.
- Instagram is used early in the purchasing cycle, where 81% of users utilize the social media platform to do product and service research.
- At least one business account followed by 80% of people on Instagram, and 72% of people have bought a product based on what they saw on the platform.
- 62% of individuals state that they got more attracted towards a business or a product due to viewing it on Instagram.
People are eager to follow businesses on Instagram, and they use the site to explore and purchase items actively.
That is a significant victory.
Additionally, Instagram's continuing efforts to embrace commerce are worth mentioning.
Instagram ads generate outstanding results and develop a high level of engagement.
Instagram shopping simplifies the Instagram sales procedure.
Businesses with over 10,000 Instagram followers may now add Swipe Up links to their Instagram Stories, a feature previously unavailable on the platform.
Instagram's growth increases its value for merchants and eCommerce firms, particularly those selling visually appealing items.
What's the best part? Instagram's algorithm determines who sees your post based on their interests and activity inside the app.
It enables you to connect with people who are likely to engage with your business and boost the effectiveness of your Instagram marketing efforts.
7 Effective Tips For Instagram Marketing
Make use of these tips to develop a marketing strategy on Instagram and achieve brand success.
1. Optimize Instagram Account
Most business people are aware of setting up their Instagram business account: mention the contact details, include keyword-optimized description, and select an easily identifiable profile image, for instance, a logo.
Include the following to get benefitted the most from your Instagram account.
Hashtags
Hashtags, included in your profile description by placing # and then the desired word, similar to what you would do on a post.
Using branded hashtags is a perfect choice for businesses, and that could help you out with the Instagram algorithm.
Profile Links
There are multiple ways to do this; you can also place links to the website in your Instagram bio.
Suppose you have another profile for a brother company; you could add links to gain traffic there.
When you run a contest with another business profile, make sure to provide a link to their profile in your profile bio.
You could also use this feature to direct individuals to your account if required for your branding.
Story Highlights
This feature allows you to add stories that expire to Instagram highlights placed just above your Instagram profile feeds.
It helps your profile appear fleshed out and display specific crucial posts, like UGC, that spotlights the brand story.
View Shop Button
When you turn on Instagram shopping in your profile, you could also include a call to action link that directs the audience to your online store.
2. Create A Content Strategy
Instagram is one among the platforms to have a massive user base, wherein 63% of users sign in to the app at least once a day, using the app on an average of 28 minutes.
And nearly 200 million users check a profile once a day within 28 minutes. Get to know the posts that perform the best to get a good outcome out of Instagram.
Every demographic is varied, and there are plenty of data compiled that could give insights on where and how to begin.
If you want to see results on Instagram, you need to understand the most effective sorts of postings.
While each demographic is unique, there has been a wealth of data gathered that might help us determine where to begin.
Users are very agnostic when it comes to the sorts of Instagram photos they wish to view.
They enjoy seeing commercial postings, motivational quotations, product photographs, do-it-yourself or tutorial information, as well as images posted by other users (i.e., user-generated content).
That said, people want to see variety; they will become bored or irritated if you utilize one sort of content for an extended period.
While videos can provide viewers with more information, which increases their value, high-quality images generally receive 36 percent greater engagement.
If you're utilizing video on Instagram, keep it brief, even if you're using IGTV. And if you want to increase IGTV views, you have to optimize your content for a particular purpose.
Instagram users are primarily mobile users who seldom stay more than 10 to 15 seconds at a time.
Additionally, you could vary the camera effects since you do not want to give people a headache by utilizing Boomerang for every post.
3. Utilize Hashtags On Instagram
Although the hashtag trend started on Twitter, it never performed well on Facebook, but it is a staple for marketing on Instagram.
Turn any phrase or word into a clickable link by simply placing text next to the symbol # beneath your posts, bio, or stories.
When users tap on the link, they get directed to a public page containing content tagged with those hashtags.
That way, users can also follow hashtags that excite them, thereby seeing a series of content even though they don't follow the poster profile.
Using hashtags is undoubtedly a perfect way for individuals to discover good quality content and for businesses to broaden their content reach.
There are six kinds of essential hashtags for brands to leverage as part of their Instagram marketing.
4. Share Instagram Stories
Instagram stories, introduced as an added feature borrowed from Snapchat.
It is a great way to share pictures and videos with your audience that disappears after 24 hours.
Brand stories have an average of 86% rate of completion, a high number on any standard.
Stories have evolved as a crucial part of the Instagram platform.
It led to story ads; the app has come up with a new feature called Highlights, where you can save your stories forever.
5. Save Your Stories To Highlights
As the stories disappear in 24 hours, similar to the Snapchat feature, Instagram found a loss in ROI on the content and offered a new highlights feature to save the stories.
The highlights are present in your profile pages, and you could highlight your stories to it before it disappears.
You can also have more than one highlight for best results, one for UGC, to display your brand's story, or for events, etc.
Saving your stories to highlights makes the followers discover the content they are searching for while visiting your profile.
It helps them to learn about you and trust your brand a little quicker.
6. Create Instagram Shop
The platform lets users include product tags and stickers available for business accounts.
That allows users to click on the product in a story or a post and view additional information, then head over to the website to make a purchase.
After done creating the Instagram shop, you could get benefitted from features like:
- Shoppable posts
- Shoppable Stories
- Tags from influencers
- Native app checkout
- Explore Shop
With this, the business people can blend the shopping experience, make brands tag the products in stories and posts, and target customers to buy the product without visiting the link in the bio.
The Instagram shop feature is suitable for users; it maximizes the likelihood of converting and solves the marketing challenge of including links in posts that make the users easily click and buy a product.
7. Host An Instagram Contest
Instagram contests are specifically a widely used strategy on the platform, and for significant reasons.
Holding contests is a sure shot to yield excellent outcomes as everyone loves the opportunity to win prizes.
Some contest rules that you need to remember,
- You can't indicate that Instagram is associated with the contest in any way.
- You can't ask people to tag themselves or others in photographs they aren't in.
- You have to obey local laws and rules, including limits concerning age, eligibility, or prize offers.
- You have to describe the rules for entering and participating clearly.
Final Thoughts
Instagram is a critical platform that businesses and marketers should consider including in their marketing strategy if they have not used it already.
Embrace it wholeheartedly by delving excitedly into its various features, consistently sharing multiple kinds of content, and connecting with the audience.
You might even be astonished at how soon results begin to stream in.
Do let me know if you have any thoughts in the comments below. Good Luck with your Instagram game!
Undoubtedly Instagram is the best social media platforms to build strong person brand and build community of active users. This guide is very helpful for beginners to start Instagram marketing with profile optimization, with a optimized profile we can also get high paying clients.
Thanks, Mary for providing this wonderful guide for beginners! I have always used Instagram to socialize with friends just like everybody else, but never to promote a brand. But now with this guide, you have given me some really great ideas to try marketing on Instagram.